It is known to blend organic polymers with inorganic particulate materials in order to improve certain properties of the polymer. Typically, the organic polymer and the inorganic particulate material are milled together under high shear conditions. Often the milling process degrades the polymer resulting in some poor performance properties. A more elegant way to introduce an inorganic component into an organic polymer is to dissolve the organic polymer in an organic solvent that contains a dissolved or dispersed inorganic component. The inorganic component infuses into the polymer to form an inorganic phase intimately mixed in the polymer phase. Such a process, however, is limited to thermoplastic polymers in that it is believed that it is necessary to completely solubilize the polymer and the inorganic component.
Another way of introducing the inorganic component into the polymer is to disperse the inorganic component into the monomers used to prepare the polymer and to polymerize the monomers. However, many inorganic species will interfere with the polymerization reaction. For example, with polyurethanes prepared from polyisocyanates and polyols, the use of inorganic phases based on metal alkoxides can generate alcohols that are reactive with isocyanates and the metal may catalyze the urethane forming reaction leading to undesirable results.